Man with 'Hannibal Lecter' tendencies sent to prison for beating baby

Derek Bullard will spend up to 30 years in prison for abusing his baby and… (HARRY FISHER, THE MORNING…)

July 03, 2013|By Kevin Amerman, Of The Morning Call

What we already knew about Derek Bullard, the Allentown man who repeatedly beat his 3-month-old son and blamed it on his toddler daughter, was disturbing enough.

But even more distressing accusations about Bullard emerged during his sentencing Wednesday. According to investigators, Bullard admitted to sexually assaulting several children as a teen; has fantasies about killing, raping and even eating people; and used underwear belonging to his mother, grandmother and sister to masturbate.

Bullard stood calmly in a blue prison jumpsuit as spectators in the courtroom appeared to be painfully digesting the information. At the end of the hearing, Lehigh County Judge James T. Anthony sentenced Bullard to 12 to 30 years in state prison for beating his child and for sending a letter to his sister-in-law and her 5-year-old daughter, threatening to eat and kill them.

"These are what I'd call Hannibal Lecter threats, am I right?" Anthony asked, referring to the fictional cannibalistic serial killer featured in the movie "The Silence of the Lambs."

Anthony prohibited Bullard from seeing either of his children for the next 30 years while he's under supervision.

"In the court's opinion, you've forfeited your right to be a parent by your actions," the judge said.

Bullard was convicted of beating his baby in June. He admitted to writing the threatening letter Wednesday, just before he was sentenced.

In the letter written by Bullard in Lehigh County Prison after he was charged with beating his baby, Bullard told his sister-in-law that she and her daughter would be shot, but not killed. He wrote that when he was released, he would eat and kill them, said Deputy District Attorney Anna-Kristie Morffi Marks.

"I swear I'm going to eat you alive," Bullard said in the letter. "I'm going to drink the blood while it's pouring out."

"Where did you come up with this concept of eating people and drinking blood," the judge asked. "You realize that's really sick?"

"I was just trying to mess with them," said Bullard, who told the judge he's being treated for bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and other mental illnesses.

It's rare to see a probation officer testify at a sentencing hearing, but Sharon Shoemaker, the probation officer who prepared Bullard's pre-sentence investigation report, testified Wednesday to persuade Anthony to give an aggravated-range sentence of up to 30 years, which he did.

Shoemaker said in her 20-plus years as a probation officer, Bullard might pose the biggest threat of all the defendants she's worked with.

"There's a high probability that he will re-offend," Shoemaker told Anthony. "The longer this gentleman is incarcerated, the safer the community will be."

Morffi then disclosed the other disturbing accusations about Bullard, including sexually abusing children; having sexual encounters with dogs; fantasizing about rapes, murders and cannibalism; and using relatives' underwear to masturbate.

Bullard told a jury in June that his wife was the one who beat and injured their child, despite demonstrating on a police video shown at trial how he twisted the baby's leg, pounded on the infant's chest and bit, choked and shook the boy June 20, 2012.

The jury didn't believe his testimony and found Bullard guilty of aggravated assault and child endangerment after deliberating for just 30 minutes.

Bullard said he called 911 after he pulled his son's leg, heard a "pop" and realized the boy was badly injured. Further tests showed the boy's ribs were also broken and Bullard later admitted to shaking, biting, punching and throwing the boy down.

"I did what I did," Bullard said Wednesday. "It was an accident."

"He's suffering from mental illness," said Bullard's attorney, John Baurkot. "He was trying to take care of his baby when this happened and he was overwhelmed."